Commission presidency

EU governments must make decision based on outcome of European elections

Following the meeting of the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents of the political groups and ahead of tonight’s meeting of heads of state and government on the election of the European Commission president, Greens/EFA president Rebecca Harms stated:

“Presidents of the main political groups are sticking to the agreement made before the elections that parliament will only support one of the leading candidates. To this end, the leading candidate of the largest political group Jean-Claude Juncker will now try to obtain a majority in support of his election as EU Commission president. The role of these elections in determining the Commission presidency must be respected by EU governments - any alternative would be undemocratic. The European Parliament must stick to its guns and not risk its credibility with voters by allowing Council to impose a different course.

"Any decision by the Greens/EFA group on who to support for the Commission presidency will be determined by the candidates’ positions on core political priorities. We want to ensure a transparent decision-making process and will be inviting all candidates to a hearing in our group to determine their position on key issues such as freezing negotiations on the EU-US trade agreement (TTIP), an EU energy union with renewable energy at its heart and more effective financial regulation. Tackling tax avoidance and tax havens is also a core priority of our group and we will be keen to find out how Jean-Claude Juncker, in particular, intends to address this.”